


Prey:Pray

by DreamsInFullBloom



Series: Hunter & Prayer Series [1]
Category: Goblin Slayer (Manga)
Genre: (Or at least she will if your a goblin), Additional Warnings Apply, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Age Swap, Alternate Title: Adventures of Priestess and Baby Goblin Slayer!, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Blood and Gore, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minor Character Death, Psychological Trauma, Roleswap, The Priestess is a Holywoman and she WILL beat you senseless, You guys already know what this manga's about but warnings all the same
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22657033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsInFullBloom/pseuds/DreamsInFullBloom
Summary: Perhaps, in another world, they might have ended up as each other.The gods collective sense of humor could be that strange.
Relationships: Goblin Slayer & Priestess (Goblin Slayer)
Series: Hunter & Prayer Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2083851
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	1. A light in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, it's me again!  
> So I decided to try my had at a Goblin Slayer roleswap fic between our dear slayer of goblins and the adorable priestess - mostly because I wanted to see if I could do it and because the idea of writing a Goblin Slayer with a much happier (err, at least happier in this fic's sense) childhood seemed like a fun challenge. Plus I liked the characters dynamic and wanted to explore it in a different setting!
> 
> While I'm certain you all saw the tags, I'm taking the opportunity to warn you once more that this fic contains -  
> Sexual assault  
> Gore  
> Torture  
> People being devoured alive  
> and Mental Trauma  
> and while I won't be writing most of the first few mentioned it out in detail, I must reiterate that they WILL be present - If even the idea of any of the above written/that was tagged discomforts you, disgusts you, and/or brings to mind any bad memories, I highly suggest you drag that mouse over to the back-arrow button and head somewhere else. You have been thoroughly warned
> 
> Otherwise enjoy the fic! (Oh, and let me know if you want me making a continuation of the AU)

“Hello there, how can I help you?”

The brunette woman at the reception desk smiles politely as the young light haired boy shyly makes his way over, clutching the straps of his travel bag tightly “I want to register as an adventurer, please...”

“Is that so?” She says, and he nods fervently in response before she pushes a form towards him “We’ll need you to fill out this sheet first. Do you know how to read and write?”

“Y-yes! My sister taught me!” He says, flushing as his voice cracks halfway and the receptionist suppresses a giggle

“No need to be nervous. Just fill out the form and I’ll handle the rest.” she says kindly, sparing his pride another blow by simply handing him a quill so he could quickly hide his face by keeping his gaze locked to the table.

Once he finishes he hands it back quickly, standing nervously as he awaits her assessment

“Let’s see...fifteen years old.” she hums, eyes trailing down the paper until they stop halfway “Your job is a ranger?”

He nods stiffly, “My sister was friends with our village hunter, so he taught me a lot and made me his apprentice. When I finished my training, I came here to become an adventurer and send money back home.”

“Oh my, how noble.” she says, smile softening while continuing her read-through.

Every once in a while, she’d pause her reading to scribble something down, and he can’t help but twitter nervously over it as he grew sweaty with anticipation. He spent so many years waiting for this, studying hard and going through his master’s near nightmarish training to make sure he had the proper skills to take on his profession – but all that would be for nothing if he got turned away at the front door.

(Would she be proud? Would she be excited for him? Would she even know he was here, if he succeeded at all?)

“Alright – looks like everything’s in order.” The receptionist says, and he feels his shoulders sag with relief as she tucks away his form “We still need to do some other processing first, but with that, you’re official registered - Congratulations, and welcome to the guild!”

He can already feel his face light up into a face-splitting grin despite trying so hard to keep his expression neutral – he didn’t want her thinking he was more of a kid than she already likely did.

The receptionist reaches into the drawer and hands him a chain with a milky-white tag hanging off the end, the guild name carved into the metal. “This tag will show off your status to the other adventures when here or at other guilds. It’s also your identifier, so make sure to keep it on you.”

She goes over the ranking system and the other purposes of the tag, and he only really half-way registers it as he rubbed his thumb over the tag’s engraving, excitement and pride filling his every cell. He did it! He was an adventurer now! He was going to be an adventurer and help people!

This was the best day of his life.

* * *

This was a mistake.

(His lungs burn painfully as he and his ~~remaining~~ ~~still living~~ companion run down the tunnels, the erratic death-knoll of small grotesque feet following close behind)

None of them were ready for a quest like this.

(Their escape is quickly cut off by sudden ambush, three of their enemies pouring out the darkness ahead as the ones behind draw near)

They were all just first time porcelains, barely having experienced a real fight before. They weren’t prepared for what lay here, for the monsters they needed to fight

(He tries to get her to stay behind him, repeats his older sister’s words in his head as he draws his dagger)

They didn’t even bring a _healer_ with them – Telling themselves they didn’t need one, that it would be an easy task, that they would be **fine**.

(He’s hears a chant and moves away, watching one of the foul beasts get swallowed in a spire of water. He turns to thank his ally for the rescue, only to watch an arrow plunge into the back of her leg)

It’s was just supposed to be a simple first quest – _so why?_

(He lets out a feral scream as he knocks one of the goblin’s back, running towards the half-elf mage as she crumples to the ground, hands clutching her bleeding calf as the goblins dive at her.)

After all...

* * *

( _“Who ever heard of getting that badly hurt fighting_ _ **goblins**_ _._ _”_ )

* * *

He keeps his swings wide but controlled, remembering the warrior's error. It was a narrow space, too small for him to make any rash maneuvers, and with too many enemies to risk doing so. If he could just keep them afar for a little bit, just make enough space for him to get to the mage and give first aid or…

But the goblins did not care of his plan, and in his desperate tunnel-vision, he makes the mistake of taking his eyes off of one of his opponents - His reward for this is a bolt to the shoulder and being tripped, crashing into the wall and becoming disoriented as his skull bounced against the dirt and stone.

The creatures hoot and holler in glee as he tries to get back on his feet, sight recovering in time to see his fallen companion, sobbing and kicking as two of the goblins begin ripping apart her dress.

“S-stop it! Get away from her!” he cries, shakily getting back on his feet again, gripping his dagger so hard he’s worried he may break the handle. He’s already woozy from the pain of the arrow and having been running for so long, and it’s hard to keep his sight focused on what’s in front of him.

He swings again to force them back, but the goblins are not deterred, fully away that their prey is weak and frightened, that they need do nothing but take their time with their new meal….

A stray pit trips him and his eyes tear up as they close in – the mage’s terrified sobs echoing in his ears as the goblins raised their knives.

(He sees _her_ , being driven away down the road to an unknown place, awaiting an apology that was never going to be given)

His weapon wavers and he clasps his hands together as though in prayer (as if that would do something, as though the gods would be so merciful as to heed the plea of a simple ranger, wishing to be saved from his foolish mistake) and quietly bites back a sob, feeling the heat of the goblin’s breath on him.

 _B-big sister_ , _help me..._

The sound of bells rings through the air, and a gentle voice drifts over him

“ _Oh_ _Earth_ _M_ _other, abounding in your mercy,_ _grant your light to_ _us who are lost in the dark –_ _ **H**_ _ **oly**_ _ **L**_ _ **ight**_ _!_ ”

Suddenly, the area is swallowed in light, and goblins back away as he and them shield their eyes from the abrupt brightness that overtook them.

He hears the bells again, and a heavy “thump” as he feels the speckle of blood splash against him and the wall. And again, and again, and again.

When he opens his eyes, the sight before him is almost unimaginable

A priestess’s robes and a white veil is all he can make out of her in the fading light of the prayer, a ghastly ashen specter covered in goblin blood and viscera, glowing in the darkness of the damp cavern as her staff swings down the goblin’s heads, crushing their skulls flat.

Who was that? Is it a ghost? Was the cave haunted?!

An outline of one of the goblins circles around to get her from behind, and she turns on them to extend her staff. It glows brightly, causing the beast to back away in fear before she swung it down, piercing the top of its skull with the sharpest end of the emblem.

One of the remaining backs away before turning their sights on him, and then charges, deciding this weakened opponent was better to deal with than whatever that unknown creature was.

He’s eyes go wide as it closes in, and he almost drops his weapon-

( _“_ _No matter how skilled a hunter you become, you will_ _ **always**_ _find yourself_ _as_ _someone else's_ _prey._ _Never forget this fear_ _little one_ _, for_ _that knowledge_ _will be your dagger when you find yourself in peril_ _.”_ )

The world slows to a slogging crawl, and somehow he can hear everything – the goblin’s breathing, the mage’s crying, even his own heartbeat, separate but somehow intertwined all together. His eyes narrow as it leaps towards him, and he quickly tucks in on himself and angles his dagger upward, leaving the goblin helpless to do nothing but fall on his blade-

And immediately leap back, scratching at its chest as he grits his teeth. The stab was too shallow, and his injury prevented him from lifting his arm higher than he had planned.

Just as the goblin readied for its second attack, a long pole pierces its chest, causing it to screech loudly before it’s lifted and swung to the ground head first.

When it finally stops twitching, the woman lets it slide off her staff, staring at it quietly before the light finally fades truly, swallowing him in shadows once more.

He’s left in the darkness for only a few trembling breathes when suddenly there’s light again, this time from a torch held by the person turning towards him.

He can’t see anything past her veil, not a single strand of hair or even the hint of her eyes. Her clothes cover her entire body and seem light in material and color, the only break from white being the lines of blue on her cloth and hood.

“Are you two porcelain ranks?” she asks, and he nods quickly while the mage stutters out a reply as the woman kneels before him. She just sit there, scrutinizing him as though she was inspecting a fruit to determine its ripeness

Suddenly she sets aside the torch and thrusts her hand out, causing him to press harder against the wall as it neared. He thinks back to to goblins and the smashed skulls, and realizing he doesn’t know if she’s here to help him or if the goblins were just an obstacle to her...

“Hold still.” she says, one hand slowly wrapping around the arrow in his arm and the other gently laying on him to keep him steady “It hasn’t all the way through, so I can still pull it out. It will hurt, but I’ll need to remove it quickly so I can treat you. Will you let me?”

He blinks at her a few time, the order taking a moment to settle in before he realizes the adrenaline from his near-death is already starting to fade, sorely reminding him of the object nestled in his shoulder-blade. As she said, it hadn’t gone all the way through or hit anything vital, but it definitely could not stay in there.

He nods again, and the woman tightens her grip on him and the arrow. Though he can’t see her face, the look being bored down on him feels…tranquil, relaxing almost really. While its still dark save the torch, he can still make out the little patterns woven into her hood and veil, shimmering constellations of soft blue in a sea of white. Its rather distracting, lulling his mind to a far off shore

Thus, leaving him largely unprepared for when she harshly shoves him back against the wall, yanking the arrow clean out as promised.

He had suffered a lot of pain in his life, from falling out of trees climbed on childish dares to dodging rocks of varying size and sharpness during his training – but none of that compared to the agony he was feeling right now.

He collapses in on himself, a soundless scream ripping through his throat as he clutched his shoulder, shaking and sobbing while the wound seemed to burst in a percussion of anguish. Dear gods above it hurts! He was aware piercing wounds could be painful, but this was just something else entirely. Just what the hell was that arrow made of?!

When he’s certain the last of his crying has stopped, the woman discards the arrow and helps him sit up, placing a bottle into his hands

“Drink it, it will help numb the pain.”

He grunts and gulps it down, cringing at the bitter taste as he feels his shoulder pulse, the pain subsided to a numb throbbing.

Once it’s emptied, she wraps his wound and helps him to his feet, then walks over to the mage to repeat the process with her, keeping her still as she thrashed about from the arrow’s removal before handing her a bottle like the one he had.

“W-who are you?” he croaked, staring numbly as the woman removes a blanket from her bag and draped it around her shivering form. “Why are you here?”

She doesn’t reply, instead choosing to just start appraising him again, though it seemed more cryptic this time around. She eventually stands and walks towards one of the goblin corpses, kneeling down as she starts removing things from them.

It’s only when she shifts around that he sees it – the silver tag dangle off her neck, somehow still pristine after her bloodied dance with the goblins.

A silver ranked adventurer.

“The same as you two.” she says, calmly flipping the foul creature over on it's back, jaundiced eyes staring up at them in frozen shock.

Then it's not frozen anymore, sitting up with a fearsome screech that causes the two young adventurers to seize up in fear before the priestess, using its fellow goblin’s small dagger, cuts it open with a single slice - ignoring the gagging noises of the mage as she lets its guts spill out onto the cavern floor.

* * *

( _“An adventurer, sent to kill the goblins that live in this den.”_ )

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, we're at chapter one!
> 
> I had some trouble trying to sort of narrow down what this version of Goblin Slayer (Or Ranger, considering things), because most of what I could get of his pre-goblin trauma personality was from Cowgirl's flashbacks and the Year-One prequel manga, and didn't just want him to come off an a male!Priestess - and on the opposite end, I didn't want Priestess coming off as a Female!Gob-Slayer. While certain events in their lives have and have not occurred, I still wanted to keep those core-parts of their personality.
> 
> I was actually going to make AU!GS a Rogue, but then I considered his skill set more and some of his history did tick off boxes for the Ranger class, so Ranger!GS it is!  
> This fic is going to be relatively short, so I'll have the other chapters posted soon.


	2. First There Were Four...

_“Hey!”_

_The boy is in the middle of listening to the receptionist explain how the job board worked to him and making suggestions for his first quest when someone walked over to him, clamping a hand on his shoulder._

_He turns to see a boy that looks to be about two years older than he was, messy brown hair and dressed in a blue tuning c covered in light armor with an axe attached to his back, grinning cockily down at him. Behind him, a silver haired girl in a soft-looking pink hood and matching frilled dress stares at him curiously, pointed ears twitching in hidden delight (a half-elf? he’d heard of them but never had the chance to meet one face to face). At his near right was another girl, cropped dark hair and dressed in dull brown armor, cheerily tapping a spear long as she was tall against her shoulder, holding it like it weighed nothing at all._

_They all seemed to regard him with varying levels of curious speculation, eyes sparkling bright, as though he was some sort of exotic delight being brought in for display and they managed to get in front of the crowds in time for a sneak preview._

_(They all had porcelain tags, same as him, shinning off their chests under the guilds lights like tiny suns.)_

_"You’re a newbie too right?" the first asks, and the young boy just nods hesitantly, seeing no reason not to admit it._

_The older boy’s grin grew wider at that, and he clamped the young ranger's shoulder again “Great! We need a fourth member for our group.” he said, holding up a piece of parchment – obviously gotten from the board “The quest we received is urgent, and we need all the help we can get if we want to get it done by today!”_

_“Urgent?” He and the receptionist echo in unison, and the other adventurer simply grinned as he slammed the paper onto the desk, eyes burning bright with passion and excitement...._

* * *

_“ **Goblin hunting!** ”_

* * *

“Who was in your party?” the veiled woman asks, suddenly filling in the silence and startling him out of the memory. He didn’t think she’d being feeling up to talking, let alone asking questions, not after….

( _“_ _Are you sure you wish to follow me?_ _”_ )

Once they were considered stable enough, the woman offered to take them back to the exit, promising to help take them back to the village once she was finished with the nest. The half-elf took her up on the offer immediately with little resistance (not that he could blame her, not after what happened). She was covered in goblin blood ( _“Their sense of smell is stronger than most. It will keep you hidden if any try to_ _attack as we_ _leave the cave”_ ) and lead back outside, then told to wait by the rocks up at the slope, with instructions of how to navigate the woods and get back to the village should she not return by sunset.

That left him to remain with the strange priestess, following her back into the den after asking to accompany her. Any one else would have likely let the older adventurer take over and cut their losses, and honestly, a small part of him could see reason in that – The veiled woman had proven herself more than capable of handling the situation on her own, while the goblins had proven themselves beyond being just “little thieving dastards” as described in their request. He was tired, in pain, and heavily injured, and had seen _much_ too much blood for one simple quest. At this point, he’d probably end being more of a burden than an asset, and both of them were probably aware of this.

( _“Of course.”_ )

But despite all that, he still walked back into the dark, promising the half elf he'd return with the missing party member and they'd all go back home together.

They came to this den as a party, and they'd leave together as one, no matter what

(The quest was originally the four’s in the first place anyways – It was only right he helped it get finished.)

“W-we had a warrior” He admits, blinking tears back and keeping his eyes focused ahead. “There was also the mage you helped, and a knight. The last one was…captured by the goblins.”

He still feels sick about it, about how they had just… _abandoned_ her like that. When the warrior fell, she had rushed into the fray to avenge him, ignoring his and the mage’s cries for her to stay by their side as more goblins filled the space between them and pursued her while they-

His stomach lurched at the memory, and bile built up in his throat again. Even with how hopeless the situation had been, they should have done something – anything than what they had! They were party members, she needed them! She was-

( _“Boys_ _get strong to protect_ _others_ _you know?_ _”_ )

“How did the goblins look?” she presses, holding out a hand to stop him from advancing further as she held the torch out. In front of them was a goblin corpse – one of the ones they had taken down before being forced to flee. It still looked dead, but after what happened with the one before, she was obviously being careful "Was there anything distinct about the group that attacked you?"

“…Before she was captured, a strange looking one showed up.” he states, eyeing the corpse almost hatefully “It was bigger than the rest of them, about the size of an adult human. She couldn’t even pierce it with her spear.”

It all happened so fast – the minute it had shown up, the knight had been quickly disarmed (What was that thing anyway even?! The villagers had said that only the goblins had shown to raid their livestock, no one even mentioned the possibility of that… _thing_ being in the cave!). She didn’t even get the chance to fight back before the other goblins had gotten her.

She seems to consider his words, bobbing her head slightly “...It was likely a hobgoblin - They usually travel alone, but occasionally, dens like this will take one in to have them act as guards for the nest." she muses "Was there more than one?”

He shakes his head, and the woman nods, seeming satisfied with the information. When another moment had passed and the corpse remained immobile, she motions for him to continue following.

As they get farther in, the cave grew more dank, and he has to start reminding himself to start breathing through his nose. He’d thought the smell of corpses would be something he could handle after spending so much time helping his master with skinning his kills, but flayed goblin flesh was beyond that of the stench of animal carcasses, especially when mixed with the natural underground musk of the den.

“May I ask one last thing?”

The boy looks over to her, eager to take his mind off the smell as she regards him calmly “There was only four of you, and you are all combat oriented. How come you didn’t bring anyone that uses Miracles?”

He doesn’t answer the question immediately, too busy dealing with the mournful burning in his guts that follows after realizing how having one might have stopped all this. He still remembers how _arrogantly_ they all had forgone the idea – There weren’t any clerics available at the guild today apparently, mostly already being scouted onto other quests, and his group didn’t want to waste time searching for one in town or waiting for someone to show when the goblins in the job posting were have said to have already kidnapped some of the village girls. Every precious second wasted was just prolonging those poor girls suffering and their families grief, and they would need to get a move on soon if they wanted to quickly eradicate the nest before they could strike again.

It just seemed simpler to just do it with only the four of them, the other three figuring that so long as they were careful, a healer wouldn’t be necessary. They were going after goblins after all – creatures as stupid as children and twice as weak, only a real danger to the odd unarmed traveler who had no skill or fighting strength to speak off. Even a simple village, so long as their people are strong and able, could hold a small group of them off long enough for adventurers to come and wipe out their nest, so even a fledgling like himself should have been able to handle himself no problem. All they just had to do was as they're supposed to, and nothing would go wrong.

( _Arrogant_. Hadn’t his older sister warned him against that sort of thinking? Told him over and over that pridefulness made for a poor man.)

“We...” he begins, mouth drying with shame “We didn’t think we needed someone like that – Everyone figured we could just...avoid getting hurt.”

He feels her gaze on him change into something. What is was, he couldn’t tell, but...it didn’t feel judgmental, or disappointed, or even aghast at their carelessness – it was… _just being_ _accepting_ _his words_ , as though that she had _known_ this was the case, as though that they have had this conversations many times, despite this being their first time even speaking to one another.

(It felt like the receptionist's gaze when they had left – like she had _expected_ them to, even though she hadn’t)

She doesn’t prompt him to explain further, or reprimand his vain assumption in their collective invincibility, and soon they let the stifling silence of the cavern fill the space again as the moved further in.

* * *

_After getting their acceptance of the quest approved (Though the receptionist seemed…uneasy about it, for whatever reason), the four young adventurers immediately set out for the area, pooling together whatever money they had to get a wagon to the village and then heading straight for the forest after learning it was where the goblins were last seen._

_“Are we getting close yet?” he hears the half-elf mage ask, carefully stepping over a dislodged root as they made their way through the forest outskirts. It almost reminded him of the one near his home village – tall trees spreading their lush green leaves to the skies, allowing dapples of sunlight to light the dirt paths ahead. In the distance, birdsongs echoed from afar above as the fishes made their way through the small little creaks to return to the rivers that housed them. Were he more magic-inclined, he’s certain the spirits of the land would be making merry among the moss and leaves, cheerfully watching over them and the animals scurry about within their domain._

_It was such a peaceful, welcoming place._

_(Made it almost hard to imagine any goblins being there.)_

_“I think so – the village chief said something about some natural caves being nearby.” The warrior said, pushing up a low branch to allow them all to pass “The goblins must of found them when they arrived in the area and made their den there. They should be up ahead.”_

_No sooner had he finished saying so, the four spotted a lumpy mound up ahead, a bit taller and more darker than the small hills surrounding it. The small little poorly made flag near the mouth of the cave entrance told them all they needed to know about what lay inside._

_As they descended the slope to the entrance, the Ranger feels himself slow, just slightly. There weren’t any goblins outside, and they managed to arrive with very little trouble. If things were going so smoothly, more than he expected, then maybe –_

_“Is...is it really okay that we just go in?” he asks hesitantly, freezing when the trio ahead turned their eyes on him. He was the youngest one here, and had just only joined the guild minutes ago, meaning he likely had less opposition power in the group. They also already seemed to be familiar with each other, which only just weakened his position further – If he didn’t word this right, he’d likely end up sounding like he was whining and lower their view of him, and that was the last thing he needed._

_“…I understand we had to hurry,” He says, drawing a breath to keep his posture straight and his voice steady “But shouldn’t we wait a bit and prepare before entering? It doesn’t look like the goblins are coming out yet, so we might be able to got back and some things from the village.”_

_Counting their supplies on hand, they only had their equipment, a torch (provided kindly by the villagers), and whatever he had left over from his journey to the guild (which was very little considering how far the city was from his village). He understood that they had to forgo securing a cleric, but none of them had brought any potions or balms, and the mage didn’t know any healing miracles either. If something were to happen while they were fighting and they couldn’t treat themselves…_

_(He suddenly feels regretful for not taking his sister up on her offer to take him to the village medicine woman to teach him of potion making. What his master taught him of medical herbs was useful for short-term minor treatments, but not for anything major)_

_The half-elf mage quickly rounds up on him, eyes turning sharp as her soft features morphed into a warning glare_

_“We can’t do that!” she counters, tone uncompromising as she placed a hand on her hips and towers over him “The goblins have already raided the village twice for livestock and women – If we wait any longer, they’ll probably destroy it in their next attack! What if while we’re out ‘preparing’, the goblins come out and burn down someone’s house, or attacks another villager? Are you fine with that?”_

_The boy’s temporarily boldness is quickly shattered as he flinches at her snappish reprimand. Hurtful as it was, she had a good point – goblins, while the weakest monster type of the forces of chaos, were a danger when you were a normal villager and not trained in fighting. They were as vicious as carrion (No, even carrion had their purpose, their reasons for their scavenging – goblins were something else entirely...), stealing what they could and taking whatever (and whoever) their tiny hands could grab that wasn’t tied down. He still remembers the stories he heard passed back and forth between the adults about unprotected villages getting picked dry in goblin attacks, and then being razed to the ground once the creatures saw nothing of value left to plunder._

_(It was hard to believe such weak little monsters could do so much damage, and with so little prompting.)_

_“Besides,” she adds with a reluctant sigh “We spent most of what we had on the wagon, so I doubt we’d be able to afford extra supplies even if we did have the time. It’s not perfect, but we just have to make due with what we have on hand....”_

_“Not that we’ll need to!” the warrior announces with a grin, taking the moment to unsheathe his poleaxe and hold it to the light. “With my axe, not a single one of those goblins are going to lay a finger on any of you! I promise, in the name of the guild, nothing will get passed me!”_

_He watches as the older boy changes his hold, reminding him of the axecutter from back home, “I spent a lot of time back home fighting these little cretins, and they’re nothing to sneeze at. All you had to do it get them like so-” he swings his weapon down swiftly, cutting the air between them “And they fall like stones! Monsters like them only get away with what they do because they’re cowardly and weak, only capably of going after those who can’t defend themselves, nothing like a real adven-”_

_His boasting is immediately cut off by the knight swinging her weapon down in front of his face, pulling it back._

_“I dunno who’s doing more movin’ sweetie - yer axe or yer jaw?” she asks, smirking brazenly as the older boy grew flustered at her teasing before turning to the ranger with a wink “Don’t mind that fool none, I'll make sure to make skewers out of any that try to get at yah real quick! That’s a knight's guarantee.”_

_She soon begins to twirl her weapon around in her hands, making wide arches and circles before throwing it up. She reaches up for the sky, barely looking up as the spear lands back into her hands with ease, causing the young boy’s eyes to light up while the mage clapped in approval._

_“That said, he **prooooolly** means what he's sayin'. He def'nitely made a good case fer 'imself on the road here.” she says coolly, then points her weapon at the half-elf “and don't forget that gal there’s from a pretty high class magic family in the cities up north – With this kind of set up, those lil’goblins won’t know what hit’em!”_

_He eyes the other girl in question, her green eyes lighting up proudly as she puffed out her chest_

_“That’s right – like I said before, my family has produced the greatest mages this world has ever seen, myself included!” she crows, showing off the flask on her waist “I’ve been studying magic since I could first walk, and have been trained to be proficient in water magic! No goblins are going to get the best of me if I can help it!”_

_While it should have made him feel more relaxed, his anxiousness just seemed to just grow even more after that, staring at them all with unbridled awe and unnerve. Naturally, they were all rather confident about taking on the goblins – they were talented enough to have ended up adventurers after all, especially in a big city like that, and we practically considered geniuses in classes all their own. To think they were all the same rank as him…._

_(Would he even be able to keep up?)_

_Suddenly, the warrior boy wrapped an arm around his shoulder, smiling at him gently_

_“Hey, don’t sweat it too much.” he says, seeming to notice his sudden gloom “Like I said, goblins aren’t that big a deal once you deal with them a few times. If things get tough, just let me handle everything and follow my lead, and it’ll be over before you know it!”_

_While the assurance was a bit lacking, it’s said with enough genuine resolve that it calms him into nodding along as the warrior releases him and leads the party into the cave, promising that once they finished with the cave, they could rest up in the village and then head for a nearby temple on the way back to the city, where they’d probably get treated by the sisters there..._

* * *

When he sees the familiar spike of stone come up, he soon realizes where they’re heading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here's chapter two, as promised!
> 
> Ranger's (AU!GS) party is actually made of different people than the priestess's. Can't be a complete one for one swap you know. They're all at least 2-3 years older than him, and joined the guild on the same day, this being their first mission since becoming adventurers
> 
> The Warrior - Composite character made from the two male adventurers from "Goblin Slayer: Year One". Primary Weapon is an axe granted to him by his village head when he announced he was going to become an adventure. While very headstrong and a bit of a know-it-all, he's quite chivalrous. Believes strongly in the ideals of heroes and wishes to become one when he's older
> 
> The Knight - Based off the spear girl from one of the "Goblin Slayer: Brand New Day" shorts. Naturally strong as a child, she took to the knighthood rather easily and was the youngest in her group to earned early honors. While she upholds the code of chivalry, she doesn't act very knight-like in the least bit, and likes playfully picking on people she considers friends
> 
> The Mage - Also based off a "Goblin Slayer: Year One" character and two mage-characters from my favorite games. Half-elf aristocrat from a huge family up north, with all her siblings being very magically inclined just like her, and being rather renown in their magic community. Comes off as haughty and arrogant, but is actually very sweet. Bit of a little-sister type, despite being the oldest of the group.


	3. A Story Unmade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning for the following:  
> Gore  
> Mutilation  
> Animal Death  
> (If you wish to skip, both start at "It’s just like with the fox" and end at "Nausea and regret overcome him")  
> If you feel you can't do that safely, just jump to the end notes.

_"What’s your village like?”_

_They're making their way through the village to the outskirts, after finishing their meeting with the village chief. They were told the goblins had been last seen in the forest, dragging away the eldest daughter of one of the farmers and some sheep a few days prior to their submitting the request form at the guild, and now were heading in the same direction, hoping the trail was still fresh enough that they could track it down to it's lair where she and the other stolen women were likely being kept._

_The young boy tilts his head, giving both the question and its answer very little thought "It’s normal. I don't dislike it."_

_That’s really all he can say about it – It’s a good place, with people he likes, and his master and sister live there. It’s where he grew up, where he learned his skills and letters ( ~~where he never said goodbye~~ ), so there’s nothing really more he can say except it’s a normal village._

_The Warrior blinks back at the blunt response, then chuckles bemusedly "Yeah, I guess you’d think that! It’s your home after all!" He says, bright expression growing dim as he stared at the rows of huts, the villagers within them quiet and dour as they watched them pass from their homes and the roads "My village…is rather quiet. It's pretty far off the beaten path, and since we barely have two coppers to rub together, we have to do what we can without any adventurers able to lend aid."_

_The Ranger can't help but let himself frown at that. He definitely wasn't ignorant of those types of circumstances - his own people occasionally had to do similar when responses from the guild board took to long to be answered, or they realized they didn't have enough to produce an enticing reward to garner the attention of "the right people" for assistance._

_"It's not too bad mostly - everyone very friendly and likes to help each other out, but it's hard making a living there. Most end up trying to leave to take their chances elsewhere, but they rarely succeeded, or make it far...” The warrior continued, face growing even more forlorn “But I never saw it like that. So, when I was old enough, instead of moving on to somewhere else, I joined my village’s guard to help fight off monsters or brigands that wandered too close, and learned to use an axe from the men there. Everyone kept telling I was wasting my time back then, trying to get me to pursue schooling like my brother or take up with the merchants to go somewhere else, but I always turned them down - I wasn't smart enough for those kinds of places, and my brother was a lot more talented than I was anyways, so sticking around seemed better."_

_His eyes drift over to the villagers off to the side, the group having choosen to work rather than observing them, and a sigh escaping his lips "Besides, those people were family too, and it seemed, well... **wrong** to just leave when things were so difficult for them.”_

_A group of children run past them, ignoring the harsh scolding of the adults as they laugh and jostle each other. Some stop to stare at them from behind their parents legs, eyes going wide with childish glee over the mysterious adventurers marching through their home, like it was a fun private parade, just for them._

_(Did they realize why they were here? Did they know what they were going to be doing? Were they even aware of what was happening?)_

_He focuses back on the Warrior, who’s watching the children with a strange, disquieted look “Is that what made you become an adventurer then?”_

_The question seemed to break him out of his melancholy quick enough, and he gives the other boy a wry smile “Sort of. Do you like heroes?” the ranger shrugged, and the warrior gave another amused laugh “Personally, I find them rather fascinating! They go around the land, traveling to faraway places, doing amazing things – it hard to believe they used to be simple adventurers like the rest of us.”_

_“Have you met one?”_

_He shook his head, “No, but I loved hearing stories about them." he explained, sight trained ahead as he started to perk up again "When I was younger, sometimes the merchants that visited our village to deliver supplies would occasionally bring adventurers as guards for them, and they’d tell me and the others about heroes they met or heard about during quests - simple peasants with nothing to their names, striking out from their homes to become adventurers and discovering a legendary sword, or finding out they had a special blessing from the gods, or accidentally saving a noble in peril. They’d slowly rise to the ranks, facing bigger and stronger foes as their names spread throughout the land, then be taken to the capital to be given the rank of hero to join the army. Once their battles were finished, they'd return home with spectacular treasures and tales, waiting for their next call to arms!”_

_The brunette boy’s eyes start to sparkle like stars as he spread his hands out to the sky, fully intoxicated in the fantasy weaving before him “When I listened to those stories, heard them talk about plain village kids like me who went on to save the world and do all these fantastical things, it made me feel...excited, somehow, and I realized just how unsatisfied I was with how things were going. I still loved the village, yes, and wanted to do what I could - but despite everything I did, I couldn't ever see us doing anymore than just...surviving the next day, endlessly continuing to just barely get by as we were." the warrior's smile strains, and his hands lower slightly before clenching into tight fists "But after hearing about heroes, for the first time in a long while, I could **imagine** a future for my village that was brighter than what we had, that I could actually create with my own hands - that I wanted to make happen no matter what! I thought if I worked hard enough, fought enough, saved up some money and managed to get to the city to join a guild, I could...maybe be like them, help make things better, get people to like calling the village home again - I mean, if people with such humble roots could earn such a title, then maybe a dumb kid like me has some hope too..."_

_His face grows determined, and the fire in his eyes burns hot enough that the ranger honestly feels a bit humid staring at him._

_"They're that amazing?" the young boy asked, causing the other to blink back to reality "Heroes? Enough to make you want to be an adventurer?”_

_"Of course!" the older boy gasped, honestly seeming shocked he was even being asked "In fact, **** **everyone** should want to be one! They're amazing people after all – going out on dangerous quests, fighting huge monsters, and ending wars just to keep the people safe! Being super famous and beloved by the whole country, yet always humble to all they meet! They go around helping people, not even asking for rewards sometimes, just because they **want** to! It’s because of them that places like the guild exist, that we’re able to become adventurers in the first place!"_

_The sun seemed to see it’s cue be called, because it chose at that moment to shine a single curtain onto of the brunette axe-wielder, bathing him in it’s golden light as his outstretched hand reached towards the heavens "With this goblin quest, I'm going to take my first step to becoming a legend! We’ll save this village, and then I’ll go on to bigger quests, become famous, and then, after I earn my new title, I'll come back home to help my village properly! It's the least I could do after all the support they've given me!”_

_The Ranger just nods, his own eyes infected by his companion's vigorous light as his early energy returns. To think the warrior had such lofty goals...it was near daunting to be in the face of it._

_They soon reach the end of the village border, looking upon the winding road leading to the forest where the goblins lay…_

* * *

The scene is worse than he remembers.

The goblins corpses are strewn everywhere, blacken blood soaking the floor and decorating the walls. Some have their bulbous little stomach cut open, guts slowly dripping out like wax. Others are face down, bodies curled into themselves like tiny children pretending to prepare for bed when they really plan to sneak out and play in the fields.

The Priestess glides across the threshold like they aren’t there, only stopping once or twice to inspect the bodies. The sight is so gruesome, it almost makes him forget the centerpiece of the massacre until his foot accidentally splashes again the large blood puddle left behind in the savagery

(He remembers his master taking him with his group to help drive wolves out of the village once, and he showed him the corpse of a fox that had run afoul of the pack. They hadn’t even bothered to try eating it, choosing instead to leave several deep bites into its body and tear off its right ear, then leave it helplessly to bleed out in the snow once it got away.)

It’s a surprise the warrior’s corpse is still there – or at least, what’s left of it. He figured the goblins would’ve cannibalized him down to the bone with how much they-

He shakes his head to rid of the screaming and tries to keep his mind clear as he assesses the damage, steeling his heart to keep it quiet during his observation. His master said the body of a kill can tell you more than you expect of your quarry; this should be no different.

_It’s just like with the fox – find out what was done, why, and what happened after._

They’re torn off one of his arms and gnawed at the stump, obviously stopping once they couldn’t get pass the bone (some pieces of flesh are on the floor and covered in saliva - did they spit it out, failing to swallow fully?). Several fingers are missing, some bitten, others cut crudely-

( _“You’re from a village too?” he asks,_ _eyes lighting up warmly_ _when the_ _younger_ _boy nodded_ _“That’s so cool!_ _It’s a bit stressful being surrounded by all these rich city-types, so it’s nice to see someone of the same grain_ _”_ )

He shivers, then moves on - His liver is missing, alongside some of his other organs while the rest are spilling to the ground and soaking the disturbed earth around him. His chestplate is gone (as are several other pieces of his armor), allowing the Ranger to actually see parts of his ribcage exposed to the musty air of the cave, meaning it did him no good in protecting his front as it was supposed to - or maybe the goblins just did that go a job of removing it to get at his stomach better...

( _The brunette stares out the window of the cart, eyes trained on the passing plains_ _“_ _When we get our reward, I’m going to send the money to my brother down east." he says "He’s studying at the magic academy there, and since it’s just the two of us, I want to do my best to support him...”_ )

He swallows harshly. He has to finish (you **owe** him that much).

Parts of his face have been torn away, and his throat’s been ripped open, the windpipe obviously bitten into. Both his eyes are-

( _“Since this is_ _everyone’s_ _first_ _goblin_ _mission,_ _I’ll_ _be_ _tak_ _ing_ _lead!” the warrior s_ _ays as they exit the guild_ _,_ _beaming_ _brightly_ _at his three new companions_ _“_ _Don’t worry too much if you find yourselves in trouble, I’m come rescue you in a snap_ _!”_ )

Nausea and regret overcome him, and the boy scrambles away to void his stomach of his morning meal – He can’t do it, he just.. _._ _he_ _ **can’t**_! The warrior had been so _friendly_ to him, so _eager_ to have him along, so _lively_ about the quest, so _excited_ about adventuring to a far off village to vanquish these evil monsters called goblins and saves village girls and get rewarded and go on others quests, form more parties, make more friends-

(When they buried the animal and he asked why the wolves had done this, his master had simple said – “ _Because they want_ _ed it_ _to_ _remember_ _that they **can**. A predator knows to remind prey that to be devoured is a luxury, that they are affording them __a_ _kindness by being their hunters,_ _because they can do much **worse**_ _. Never forget this little one...”_ )

and now he was just... **this**.

The Priestess walks over and knees beside him, rubbing circles on his back that just cause him to dry heave as he tries to stop the tears threatening to spill out from the memories of their brief exchanges.

If only he had been faster in his warning when he was fighting the goblins, if only he had been firmer in requesting they hold off entering the cave, if only he had brought more supplies with him than what he had.

(If only he had just done _something,_ maybe he would have lived longer, long enough to escape with them.)

The two rise as the boy harshly wipes his mouth, and a new, _uncomfortable_ feeling settles in with the disgust “I’m sorry.”

“It is alright.” The priestess says, a soothing hand still on him “He was your friend, it’s a natural reaction.”

He shakes, wondering if it’s _natural_ for a person you only met this morning to be in this kind of state, who was alive and talking so vividly, asking you about your village and letting you in on his dreams, and now was just pieces of meat left out carelessly to rot like a discarded meal.

(and was it natural, to see all the small, little ways you could have stopped it, and realize none of them matter anyways, because he still ended up a corpse.)

“Do you wish to go back?” she asks, tone laced with concern “You do not have to force yourself it you-”

But the Ranger shakes his head – he told himself he would have this finished, that he’d go home with his party _together_. He couldn’t grow fainthearted now, and he _certainly_ couldn’t do so when he’s only come this far.

While still seeming uncertain, the priestess removes her hand, and then clasps them together in prayer, head bowed.

“Oh earth mother, kind and merciful, watch over this young soul, whose journey towards your peaceful embrace has been started too soon….”

He watches blankly as she prays to the mound of flesh that was once a young man proudly declaring that he would vanquish the goblins of this nest, then clasps his hands as well – mostly because he couldn’t think of what else to do with himself in that moment.

(It had nothing to do with the hollowed pit forming in his heart)

* * *

_"I wish you luck in you goals.” The ranger said as they passed through the smalls fence, dusty soil slowly being replaced with springy vegetation “Hopefully we can help you succeed in you first legendary battle.”_

_The warrior stares at him, seeming surprised at the unexpected encouragement, then grins as pulls the ranger close into a half-hug_

_"I won’t need luck – so long as we're together, nothing bad will happen!" he laughs, dragging the boy along by the neck as they delved deep into the green...._

* * *

Once they finish, the priestess retrieves the warrior’s broken axe, observing it calmly before offering it to him.

He tries (by the gods he tries!), but he can’t bring it in him to touch it, not when he knew who it was for (who it _belonged_ to) – so she simply puts her hand on his shoulder again, and then moves to store the item away in her bag.

“He has a brother,” he finds himself saying suddenly “It should be sent to him.”

But while he says that, he realizes he has no clue where the warrior's brother is specifically, what his name is - or what he'll do what he hears the news...Just that he's studying magic in the east and that his sibling's dead now.

(He wonders, slightly, how nice it would have been to have gotten the chance to learn these things)

The priestess pauses, if only slightly

“I’ll ask the guild to try and get in contact with his family after we've finished and retrieved the body for them to bury him.”

(The way it's said isn't heartless, but it’s a cold slap in the face all the same; a chilling reminder that despite their best efforts, there ended up being _something_ to bury at the end of all this.)

After she's finished, the white-clad woman begins to scans the area quietly, turning to face him after. Her figure is still and unreadable, but he can practically hear the question forming behind her veil, even before she actually says it aloud.

“Where did the goblins come from?”

He slowly points towards the road they had come down from, still trying to settling the unrest within him so his hand would stop shaking “Behind us.” he answers, “I heard them coming from there. We managed to hold off the ones that showed up first, but then the others came and we got overwhelmed”

She nods and then goes ahead to observe the space, littering across every corner as though searching for something. When she seems to find it, she motions for the boy to come over, form suddenly going tense.

He does as instructed, eyes going wide with disbelief at the sight before him as he nears and she holds her torch up

“A-a side tunnel?” He wheezed, staring at the dumbfounding sight of the narrow fork that dove into the separate hollow chamber ahead. He even went as far as ghosting at hand over the wall, as though as doing so would just make it vanish out of existence and prove itself an illusion.

He hadn’t seen it at all when they entered, before or after, and while he understood being human meant his sight wasn’t going to the best compared to others, he at least had _some_ pride in his ability to navigate dark spaces with how often his master would send him out scavenging for herbs after dark to improve his night vision.

“The caves are dark, and young adventurers only have their eyes and torches to guide them.” The woman says as she moves her torch to illuminate the totem that had startled them before, it’s hollowed eyes casting it’s judging gaze into his soul “Goblins, on the other hand, have been breed to thrive in the darkness. Because of that, you were unable to see that the shadows reached father than you all saw....”

* * *

The half-elf mage sneezed, holding her nose as they moved deeper into the cave.

_“Why is it so musty in here?” she whined, sniffling rather pitiably as another sneeze escaped her mouth_

_“What were y’all expecting?” the knight chuffed, readjusting her grip on her weapon. “Goblin’s ain’t the cleanest things around ya know? And not everywhere’s as “nice and proper” as your fancy northern cities.”_

_Rather than answer the barb, the other girl turned to their leader, who was far ahead of them, holding the torch up like a beacon “What exactly is the plan here anyways?”_

_“We find the goblins, we kill them, then we rescue the girls and take them home!” he says, pumping his fist enthusiastically while the silverhaired girl sent him a withering look._

_“Straightforward approach, huh?” hummed the knight, readjusting the hold on her polearm “Can’t say I hate it – Though I’m thinkin’ those girls might feel a lil’ cramped in you dorm back at the guild.”_

_That elicits an embarrassed squeak from the warrior, leading the two to get into a rather loud debate while the mage rolled her eyes, sniffling harder from her allergies as she rubbed her nose._

_Meanwhile, the boy kept to the back, doing his best to keep in pace with the others while distractedly listening to their squabbling._

_His job was rather simple – keep an eye out for goblins, and protect the rear. He had told them of how his sister and master had taught him a lot of hunting skills for his ranger training, and that seemed to impress them enough to give him such an important task. Plus, since the half-elf girl was a ranged-fighter and had limited number of requests to the spirits, he could provide support for her should she run out and allow her time to escape should the need arise._

“ _ **We’ll handle the front, she’ll provide support, and you keep an eye out on our backs.” the warrior had said, boldly thumping his chest “So long as we all do our jobs and keep moving forward, everything will work out!** ”_

_Though he had still felt some dregs of uncertainty, the others confidence in him and their own skills manged to at least convince him things would be okay - There were four of them against goblin's small numbers, and the people who made up the party were all rather strong - The warrior spent his youth under the guide of the village guard, having fended off monsters and even a group of goblins as a child on his own; the half-elf came from a long, noble line of magic users from the northern cities, and spent her childhood under the tutelage of the most prominent sorcerers within her kin; and the knight was the youngest graduate of the academy in the capital, earning the highest rank of her class and even receiving requests to join the royal army!_

_Meanwhile, he himself was simply the village hunter’s apprentice, and while he lack the other’s pedigrees, he was at least determined to make sure his lack of experience would not drag his party down._

_In short, his own status aside, they had the overwhelming advantage it seemed. As it was said beforehand, the boy just had to do his job and help them finish the quest as quickly as they could, and everything would be fine._

~~_( **Arrogant** )_ ~~

_They’re nearing a halfway point when he suddenly hears a distressed cry ahead from the warrior, and the boy snaps his head up as his senses blare to life, hand on his weapon and ready to fight-_

_Except there was nothing ahead except a totem of some kind, a strange animal skull set atop wood and bones and decorated with small stones and a dirty tarp._

_“W-what in the hell **is** that?!” the brunette hissed as the knight helped him back up. Seemed the sudden appearance of the object in his line of sight spooked him into falling over._

_“Dunno? Maybe some sort of weird cave decoration or somethin’?” the dark-haired girl mused, before turning to the older boy teasingly as he dusted himself off, “Aww, don’t worry sweetie – I don’t think it bites.”_

_The warrior stutters lamely at that, unable to respond, and stomps off ahead as the woman snorts, ears glowing red in the darkness._

_The other follows his lead but he doesn’t join them though, linger back to curiously observe the strange totem instead. Just what was this for anyways? It looked like a small animal, about the size of a dog or bigger. The snout was pretty long though – so maybe a sheep’s head? They did say the goblins had stolen some livestock earlier…_

_A sudden hand on his arm startles him, and the boy turns his head sees the half-elf, green eyes glaring at him unpleasantly as she impatiently tapped her foot._

_“Finally,” she says with a roll of her eyes “If you're done daydreaming, we need to move – they’re already gotten ahead of us.”_

_He blinks before looking to see that the gap between them and the other two adventurers had widen considerable, and stumbles as the girl grabs him again and drags him away from the totem, grumbling (though not unkindly) under her breath about distractions and having left home to **avoid** babysitting._

_His cheeks puff out involuntarily at that (all whilst mentally scolding himself for reacting so childishly), and he readies a retort to defend himself when he hears something that causes him to still._

_It’s small and faint, but it’s there all the same – The sound of small, scurrying feet, clawing against the ground and coming up behind them._

_(Not ignoring it was probably the only correct choice he made in that moment.)_

_The mage frowns as she sees he’s stops again “What is it now?”_

_“Something’s behind us.” he said, and he can feel her impatient glare turn shocked as she releases him, stepping back and following his gaze into the darkness behind them._

_“...I don’t see anything.” she mumbles, and when nothing happens, she turns back, looking even more annoyed than before._

_“I told you, we don’t have time to mess around-”_

_That’s when the goblins showed up._

_Three burst out of the darkness, tiny, beady-eyed green-skinned beasts, screeching with all the fury they can muster as they rushed towards_

_“ **G-goblins!?** ” the half-elf cried, and the boy is stunned at the sight, too much so to even remember that he’s armed until the first one makes it to them and knocks him to the ground, scratching at him with it’s long, gnarled claws_

_He fumbles for his dagger and twists it in his grip, striking the goblin in the head with the hilt and causing it to crash into the wall, scrambling to his feet to regain his footing._

_The mage however, barely manages to reorients herself, getting nearly overwhelmed by the duo that charged at her until she manages to calm herself enough to call forth the water spirits in her flask to form a ring and whip one away, allowing the boy to knock down the other and return to her side_

_“H-how’d, I mean, we –” she stuttered, gripping her flask shakily as more joined up with the three who were recovering, slowly having their crude weapons drawn “ **We’ve been walking in a** ******straight** **line**! How did they get behind us!?”_

_He wonders the same, adjusting the grip on his weapon as the goblins hovered around, heckling and snarling at them._

_The mage’s trembling, thundering heartbeat nearly drowns out the shouts of the knight and the warrior as they run to their sides, more glowing yellow eyes following at their heels..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I hesitated writing out Warrior's backstory, but I then I started writing and well, now it's there. I think I'm finally finding a good stride for writing AU!GS's personality, same with AU!Priestess.  
> Thanks for reading, and let me know how your liking things so far!


	4. A Worthy Trade

_“I’m sorry.” the warrior apologized suddenly, surprising the half-elf mage “That ring, it was something important wasn’t it?”_

_The original plan had been to walk to the village, but then it turned out the place they were heading for was more out the way they believed, so needing a cart was unavoidable. None of them also had any riding skills, meaning that alongside that, then were in need of a driver as well._

_However, the cart and driver turned out to be more expensive than first believed, and the owner of the rental shop had run afoul of one too many adventurers failing to keep up their part of the payment of either or. With so little money between the four of them, it looked to be that their first quest was going to end before it began._

_At least until the Mage offered a rather precious looking ring, silver band and inlaid with deep blue gems, as additional payment - so with driver and cart obtained, the four loaded in before being driven out of the city, cobblestone and puddles slowly being replaced with dirt and grass._

_It had been a somewhat quiet trip, mostly with them talking about what they had planned to do with their reward (the Warrior planned to send the money to his brother at the magic academy while the Knight was going to just put it away for a rainy day). When the Mage's turn came and she joked about buying her ring back, the Warrior had suddenly turned solemn, and her attempt at backtracking somehow lead to the abrupt apology._

_The Mage tucks back a piece of her while looking away, clearly feeling awkward and trying to hide it._

_“Don’t worry about it,” She says with a dismissive sigh “The ring wasn’t even that special.”_

_The Warrior doesn't believe her, and neither does he - though for other reasons._

_“It was **seastone** , wasn’t it?” the Ranger asks, going ridged when the girl sent a warning look his way “Those are rare gems, even on the market. That must have been hard to come by.”_

_He recognized it because he saw a traveler pass by the road home with jewelry made of of the mineral once, shimmering like a blue beacon through the window of her carriage as it rumbled passed him and his friends. He had learned about the gem through his sister when he told her about it.  
_

_“It’s fine,” she huffs stiffly, though the stance she takes and the way it comes out tells differently “It wasn’t that big a deal. I have plenty of others like it back home - Besides, we needed a cart, and now we have one. A necessary loss”_

_The Warrior still doesn't look satisfied with her excuses, but the glare she sports when he looks to ask more finally gets him to drop the subject. Thegroup went quiet after that, the only thing filling the silence around them being the sound of stones being rolled over by the cart wheels._

_“Yer from the north right? From one of them rich noble families.” the Knight suddenly states, causing the other girl to blink “Clothes gave yah away real quick hun. Can’t imagine why a fancy gal like yerself would be in this kind of city when they’ve got plenty more nicer guilds up there.”_

_She was right, the Ranger thought - the north was rich in both resources and employment opportunities, being so close to the capital and everything. The land was futile, the shops constantly full of the latest goods, and the markets there were always flowing with gold in one direction or another. If you were there (and from a rich family), you could have any sort of job you wanted and never have to worry a day in your life about...well, anything - or at least, that's how most of the adults back at the village saw it._

_(It also had plenty of guilds run by former adventures and noblemen, finely stocked and staffed with any luxury a adventurer would need and then some. You'd be hard press to find someone who would **avoid** taking up with those places and instead travel miles away for a specific one.)  
_

_“I'm aware.” she near-snaps, settling down a bit more when the darkly dressed knight responded with a quirk of her eyebrow. Her gaze turned unsteady, looking unsure of whether or not she wanted to explain or not._

_Then she sighs, and shifts her sitting position to something more comfortable as she leans back against the side “My entire family is made of magic users – scholars for the academy or magic users who helped fight the dark army. My parents were rather famous for their work back home, so everyone knew who I was. It was expected of me to take on the same sort of research after enrolling in the academy, just like my siblings had – and I did, for a while. It was great at first, learning so much about the world and my powers, but at some point...I soon realized I hit an impasse. I-"_

_"Couldn't finish?" The Ranger asked, and she pauses for a moment to look at him, expression a mix of offense and confusion._

_"...No." she sniffed, frowning deeply "Quite the opposite really- I was finishing my investigations into magic faster than I could start them."_

_The Ranger blinked in confusion, the others being of similar thought it appeared. When it looked like she wouldn't be interrupted again, The Mage continued "Like I said, everyone knew my family, and they all did the same sort of research - which meant they already made huge discoveries in their fields and uncovered all the mysteries within them before I could even consider it. No matter how much I studied, what I learn, what I developed - one of them had already done so first, or better, or flashier! I could barely open a book or call for a scroll that didn't have their names on it already, or talk to someone without them and their research being brought up in the conversation! Even when I pursued things outside of magic, they still managed to be involved somehow!"_

_At some point in her rant, she wrapped her hands wrapped around herself, and her expression grew from frustrated to desperate "It was… **suffocating**. I felt like I would never have any sort of accomplishments to claim as my own, that no matter what I did, I'd never escape from that towering legacy they built around themselves. I knew that if I continued as I was there, within their shadows, I would have just...vanished." s_ _he stops to take a breath, and her gloom-ladden eyes suddenly sharpen with unspoken resolve "_ _The last thing I wanted was to spend my whole life searching for a story or legend they hadn't touched or made, not without at least doing something to make myself known..._ _So I left to become an adventurer, deciding that if I couldn't make my mark through academics, that I'd do so through quests - and that ring is something I bought afterwards, to remind myself what I was here for.”_

_Then she realizes that the looks being given have grown...condolent, so she threw her hands in the air rather carelessly, nose stuck in the air_

_“And now it’s cart fare - so oh well!”_

_The knight just nodded sympathetically with an inaudible mumble, while the Ranger's face grew thoughtful - He wasn't a smart person, or at least he wasn't according to his master. It was the reason he had hesitated to take him on as an apprentice, even with his sister's goodwill towards him acting as a bridge between the two. While the insult frustrated him, he couldn't really find much to argue against, so it hadn't mattered much - he had no interest in proving his master wrong on his intelligence, just on his ability to learn._

_Admittedly, because of that, he can't imagine being like that - so desperate to prove himself smart that he'd leave behind his sister and home, abandon libraries of knowledge at his fingertips, or give up a prized family heirloom (She said it was bought recent, but the groves and marks on it said otherwise), just for the chance._

_Suddenly, the warrior, who had gone silent during the whole exchange, scoots over to her (stumbling a bit when they hit a dip in the road), and takes her hands into his, looking deep into her eyes with a fierce fire of determination_

_“I promise,” he declares loudly, voice booming around the tarp "When we get our reward, I return to that shop and get your ring back for you - On my honor as an adventurer, I solemnly swear I will pay back your noble sacrifice, no matter what it takes!"_

_The half-elf mage stared at him for a bit, face flushed and expression unreadable. The other two just watch from their own spots, unsure of how to respond or react to the scene unfolding (though the knight's eyes had flashed with... **something** in the minutes that passed)._

_Then the silverhaired girl slowly removes her hands from his, not even breaking eye contact during, and soundly smacked him over the head._

_(The ranger can't help but wince sympathetically, remembering his own training suddenly)_

_“I.di. **ot**." she says, making sure to slowly emphasize every part of the word as his head snapped downward "Didn’t you **just** say you were going to use the money to pay for your brother’s schooling? How exactly are you going to do that **and** get me my ring back?!”_

_“I-I'd find a way!” he cried, rubbing the spot she had just hit while she stares at him with her eyes twitching, looking more like a owner disciplining her unruly pet than a team mate arguing with a partner. "M...maybe..."_

_“There’s no point in buying that ring for myself if it’s just going to be bought back for me by someone else!” she grumbles, jabbing a scolding finger in his face before running in through her ponytail to smooth it back out “So stop worrying about it okay? Once I save up enough money, I’ll buy it back from the old man, or get a new one - like I said, I can afford it."_

_The boy tries to protest again, but she just cuts him off by scoffing and crossing her arms, so he just scoots back to his spot with his head hung low while the Knight chuckles at the sight..._

* * *

The mage tugs her blanket closer, shivering as the cool, forest breeze ruffles her hair and what remained of her clothes

* * *

“Have you fought goblins before?”

After disposing of a scout that exited the side tunnel, the priestess had explained to him that the totem his group had seen belonged to a "Shaman" – apparently some sort of spell-casting goblin, who was likely in charge of the den. She also believed that the captive woman and his party member were being kept in its chamber (where the tunnel likely led), so they would have to plan their next move carefully if they were to defeat the goblins and rescue them.

She asked him what items he had on hand, and instructed him to set up a trip-rope with some leftover pegs from his old tent and rope she provides him. He’s in the middle of tightening the knot on the first peg when she asks her question.

He looks up at the veiled holy woman in confusion, and she simply tilts her head in response.

“You’ve done a lot of what I’ve asked with very little prompting, or none at all.” she explains “I can only assume you have dealt with them before - Is that not the case?”

He shakes his head, refocusing on the task at hand “T-there was a nest that showed up at my village once.” he mumbled, pushing the first peg deep into the earth to ensure it stayed in “But some adventurers got rid of them for us. We were pretty lucky they answered our request so quickly.”

No one knew where the goblins had come from, the awful little creatures had just…appeared one day, raiding the storehouses where they were saving food for the coming winter. They had spend _months_ pleading to the local guilds to come send someone to come take care of the monsters and protect their herds and women, finally received aid in the form of a small group of adventurers who had luckily spotted their request buried underneath all the older ones - Unfortunately, between pooling together whatever money they barely had on hand to make up for the promised reward and paying off fees to the guide, the village’s coffers were quickly drained dry soon after, basically leaving a lot of families worrying more about when the kingdom would send their collectors in after them than another goblin scare.

(It was because of this that he had ask his sister to help arrange his training with the hunter, what prompted him to leave home earlier than planned like a lot of the older children had once the news spread. They had to do something to help the families recover, and getting jobs outside the village seemed like a step in the right direction...)

“But the warrior, he said he’d fought them before, back at his home village. We were mostly following his lead when….”

He grips the peg, thinking about how swiftly the warrior was defeated. The goblins barely had to do anything, just waited for his weapon to be gone, struck him down and started-

“He was likely referring to a wanderer or a scout.” she says, banishing his dark thoughts as she moved the torch to help him see better “It’s quite a common story amongst young ones like yourselves – a goblin gets separated from its group and wanders into a village for food, and some child helps scare off them with the aid of the adults, thinking themselves the stronger one in the encounter.

His frown grows deeper at that, watching her grip on her staff tightens, casing it to shake in her grasp. "The belief is never corrected, and their heads soon get filled with stories from others of the same thing - told over and over again of how goblins are weak, how they are stupid, how they are _cowardly,_ and easy to **kill** _._ It makes the goblins seem feeble and causes them to see themselves as powerful in comparison – After all, if a simple village child can handle one by themselves, then they are not such fearsome foes for adventurers, are they? Soon they become like spirits from a fairytale, used to frighten children into being good and doing their chores."

He stares into the darkness ahead, at the tiny scratches along the wall illuminated by the torchlight, realizing the more deeper he stared in, the more the ones he could see looked fresher and newer that the other marking around the cave - How was it possible something that could do things like that are as weak as people claim? How he was foolish enough to think so himself?

(He wonders how deep the goblins must had dug to make this tunnel, how long it took them to make. They must have traveled quite a bit to sneak around and ambush them, tried so _hard_ to keep their movements quiet enough as to not alert them.)

She shifts to let him move over and place down the other peg “The event and the stories eventually inspire them to become adventurers, and with those two things becoming so ingrained into their hearts, they take on goblin extermination as their first quest, believing it will be a simple task for them – Something to tide them over as they build up reputation to rise through the ranks, or because it’s their first day and they haven’t understood the true risks of adventuring yet.” (He bites his lip at that last part) “But then they go into a den, or come across a roaming squad, and they soon realize too late that facing an entire prepared horde - one fat on stolen grains and armed with friends and tricks and weapons, is much more difficult than a starved, _weak_ lone scout.”

He looks back at her, task momentarily forgotten, and quietly wondering if she’s still talking about the goblins at this point.

(Or if she was even speaking about them in the first place)

Then he thinks back to their journey here, about how the Warrior had spent so much of the trip to the village crowing about how easy the goblins were to fight, how that at his old village, that he was basically considered their sole goblin defender – driving the little dastards off when they dared even showed their faces near his home. He recalls how self-assured the older boy had been that that the goblins were nothing to fear, weaklings that even fledgling adventurers like themselves could handle with their base equipment. To think all that confidence came from fighting a single goblin with a stick was just...unbelievable to him.

And the boy had taken his stories so seriously, despite knowing how terrifying even the _idea_ of goblins could be in the eyes of a young village child, believing it was just due to his lack of experience with facing such foes that the other boy seemed so much stronger, and that in time, after this quest and the ones to come, he would become that same way.

And it turns out he was right – just not in the way he had assumed, or planned.

(Now that he thinks it, the warrior also said his village was rather quiet, and that most of the village adults made up their guard - None of them ever made to ask how often goblins attacked his home, or how many he himself actually had to fight.)

“That sounds terrifying.” is all he can say, and priestess just nods in turn.

“If the gods are kind, they will escape the encounter with only their pride stolen from them – but if they are not….”

She doesn’t finish the sentence, and the boy does not reply, just sits quietly as the scene replays in his head again – the warrior being torn apart while his party watches on, the knight getting assaulted as her friends run away, helpless to do anything for them, despite promising they’d keep each other safe.

(The image of that bright confident grin is harshly blinked away before he shoves the second peg in as hard as he can.)

* * *

Once the trap is finished, they step over the rope and slowly make their way in, the Priestess silently cautioning him to move carefully as they made their way through the cramped tunnel.

When they arrive at the mouth of an entryway, she holds her hand out to signal him to stop.

“The main chamber is ahead,” she whispers, retrieving a tiny bow and arrow from her bag. A longer look made him soon realizes was from one of the goblin that had ambushed him and the half-elf before, likely taken off the body while she was checking for any playing dead.

“You said before you knew how to use a bow - Does your shoulder still hurt?”

He shakes his head hesitantly, and she hands him the weapon before lowering her torch, crouching low with her staff held close “I’m going to enter and use Holy Light to blind them.” she explained “Once I have finished chanting, shoot where where I tell you, and we’ll head back towards the entrance. Can you do that?”

He nods, grip tightening on the weapon as the woman moves ahead. Once she’s near the edge of the entrance, she raised her staff slammed the blunt end against the ground twice, alerting the goblins hidden within of her presence

“ _Oh_ _Earth_ _M_ _other, abounding in your mercy,_ _grant your light to_ _us who are lost in the dark –_ _ **H**_ _ **oly**_ _ **L**_ _ **ight**_ _!_ ”

Her staff flashes, and the cavern fills with light and the sound of goblin screams as he rushes forward.

“On the left! It’s the one near the chair with its face covered! Aim for the chest!”

Inside, there are six goblins, the larger monster that defeated the knight (The hobgoblin), and...several women, some unmoving while other are...having things done to them. He can’t tell which is his missing ally, but he has no time to wonder – he has a job to do.

He finds the shaman easily, the creature rising from his makeshift throne as his gibed chattering begins manifesting a fireball. He draws his arm back, praying for the tinge in his shoulder to still and that his memories of his master’s form holds up long enough for him to keep his shot steady.

The arrow makes its mark, thankfully, interrupting the monster’s chanting as it crumples to the ground and clutches its shoulder.

(it does not hit where it was asked, but it did something at least)

“Go, _now_!”

He drops the bow and runs, struggling to follow alongside the priestess hurried strides as he hears heavy, plodding footfalls drawing close followed by a deep growl that echoes throughout the tunnel

 _The hobgoblin_ he thinks, looking back to see that the large creature is already pursuing them, trudging up the slope to catch up to the intruders who would dared hurt its shaman and its fellows eyes.

The priestess reaches the exit first and leaps across the threshold, and it almost takes him a minute too long to remember the trap he had set before doing the same, covering his head as he goes rolling across the ground.

The hobgoblin nears, looming outline breaking through the shadow of the entrance

“I’m casting again – shut your eyes!” she calls, and he does so immediately, hearing the prayer for light as the blinding flash peeks through the slits of his eyelids.

He hears the hobgoblin give a distressed grunt as the rope strains and a shadow suddenly falls over him...

* * *

_“Stay back, I’ll handle it!”_

_The warrior pulls out his axe and dives into the group of goblins, clearing the way for the Ranger, the Mage, and the Knight to navigate behind the monsters and putting them between himself and the creatures. The three try to rejoin him, but he’s swinging so wildly they can’t move around without risking getting cut by his backswings._

_“Hey, ease off a little!” The Knight yelps, complaints ignored as the other boy continued his frenzied dance, swinging his axe with violent abandon. Seems he was so focused on the enemy that he forget about the rest of them._

_In any case, he is managing to hold his own, keeping the little beasts at bay and felling any unlucky enough to be in the path of his swings. Meanwhile, the rest are able to at least take down some of the ones on their side, clearing away the path to the exit again. It almost seems like they might have a chance of recovering and countering the goblins's ambush_

_Then he notices the Warrior taking too big a windup for his next attack, unaware of where his next swing is moving...._

_“Stop!” the boy cries, but the warning comes too late – the Warrior’s arch is interrupted by his axe striking a stalagmite erupting from the ground, causing him to lose momentum in his next swing. One of the goblins take advantage of the opening and gets him in the arm, causing him to cry out in pain before he tries another strike._

_He manages to throw them off, but then pulls too hard upward in his next attack and his weapon's axehead goes flying, the strike at the stone and the continued swings weakening the wood badly enough that it breaks in the next hit and the rest of the weapon goes flying - his hands too slick from the blood of his wound and the previously murdered goblins to keep a good grip anymore._

_His eyes go wide as the goblins leap upon him, and tackle the older boy to the ground, eyes glowing with glee at the sight of their prey's terrified face upon realizing he no longer had any means to keep them away, and that they were feeling rather eager to get back at him for all their friends who he had been smashing up with his axe..._

* * *

His eyes open to the world moving at dizzying speeds – The Priestess barely managed to pull him out of the way of its path in time, causing them to skid into the wall as the hobgoblin tumbles to the ground.

The Priestess waste no time, handing him the torch and throwing asside her bag before leaping on top of the beast and straddling its back as she swiftly slides her staff under the hobgoblin’s chin. She pulls upward, causing it to screech loudly as it desperately clawed at her to no avail.

“In my bag, there’s a goblin spear!” she grunts, keeping a foot planted squarely on the hobgoblin’s back as she rose to her feet, causing it’s struggles to escape her grasp to increase as it was arched against its will “Grab it quickly!”

He does as told, rummaging through the several items until he finds the tiny, poorly made spear.

“Good – now come and aim for the throat!” He tenses. She wants him to what? But he’s never used a spear before. What if he misses, or- “It’s fine! It won’t hit me, you just need to stab hard enough to pierce its skin! Do it quickly!”

He shakes, making his way over as the hobgoblin snarls and growled, seeming more like a distempered wild dog than a terrifying beast that had beaten his friend without even attempting at sparing an effort. It’s already starting to drool from having exhausted its energy from all its flailing, swings slowing ever so slightly.

When he gets close, it tries to snap at him, spittle flying everywhere, and suddenly it happens again – the world around him narrows and everything becomes centered on him and his prey. He can feel his breath and the hobgoblin’s synchronizing yet somehow erratically being completely out of tone with each other.

He rushes forward, steadies his feet, and jabs the spearhead as hard as he can through it’s throat, feeling it pierce through the windpipe and muscle as he leans into the stab.

The creature only stirs once more before he twists the spear, and its eyes roll back as its final breath escapes.

He pulls back as the priestess shifts her weight again, standing tall as the beast goes slack in her gripe. When she’s certain it won’t move, she releases it and motions him to return her torch to her before retrieving her bag.

“You did a good job.” she says, and he almost doesn’t hear her, heartbeat too thunderous and his blood is too loud to really focus himself on anything else except the hobgoblin corpse and the small pool of blood forming beneath its body that's lapping at his feet.

(It had seemed so daunting the first time it appeared, made itself come off as this unbeatable giant, incapable of being harmed – and now it was just like the other goblins laying dead around him)

He feels her gaze fall upon him, worry and hesitance intermixing as she reaches a hand out-

“I’m-” he starts and backs away, swallowing the thick lump that had suddenly formed in his throat “I’m fine”, and repeats it, just so he can make sure his voice is still there, could still be victorious over his roaring nerves.

Her hand freezes, and she looks to not believe him (even though he can’t see it), yet retracts her hand all the same, choosing to instead start disarming the dead creature.

After getting what she can, she lifts its giant axe, holding it so that it’s standing at her height

“Do you think you can use this?” she asks, and when he shakes his head, she plucks the rope holding the axehead and pockets it and the hilt, and then hands the stick to him.

He almost drops it (it’s heavier than he expects), but she steadies his hand, and moves to them so they're grasping the staff firmly

“Are you fine with this?” he nods quietly “Good. Swing low and aim for their legs, I will handle the rest. The goblins will be coming soon to aid their now fallen guard.”

He stands at the ready as she carefully sits up the corpse of the hobgoblin near the entrance, coaxing him over to assist…

* * *

_The first gets him in the head with a club._

_The second strikes him in the knee with a spear._

_The third grabs his ruined axe staff, swinging it playfully down on his arm as though it was a new toy, throwing splintered wood everywhere._

_The rest swallow his blood-curdled screams with their claws and teeth and knives_

_The three just stare, wide-eyed and teeth clattering as the goblins rip apart their meal and turn their eyes to them, their friend’s blood mixing in with the drool dripping from their grinning maws._

* * *

The goblins scour the tunnel, teeth bared in hostility as they search for the strange trespassers who dared blind them so sneakily and harmed their leader. They had been having fun, playing around with the human women they had stolen, only to be suddenly surprised by creatures smelling of them, one shooting an arrow at their shaman before running away like cowards!

Up ahead they see a shadow, and they rush towards it, thinking it was the intruders. Some find themselves being tripped by a rope left out for some reason, but it doesn’t stop their march as the shadow falls towards them.

In front of them is not the intruders, but instead the body of their guard - reeking of death’s stench. It topples over and pins a few down while the others scatter away, the former struggling desperately with all their might to get out from the sudden deadweight upon them.

There’s a sound of pained cries from their allies as heavy thumping sounds follow, as though someone is smashing fruit with a heavy club, and the trapped goblins struggling is renewed as they try to craw their way out of the corpse of their guard – But the body is extremely heavy, and they find themselves already exhausted from their futile pulling.

Suddenly the thumping had stomped, and they look up to see shadows, smelling of their blood and standing among the corpses of their allies before making their way towards them. The last thing the goblins see is a covered face and voracious red eyes (eyes not unlike their own) bear down on them before they feel something heavy smash down onto their head and the darkness rushes in to swallow their screaming...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came out shorter than I planned, mostly cause I already covered what I wanted from it and adding extra seemed to...much  
> Also Half-Elf mage's backstory came out shorter than planned too - but I realized looking back at warrior's that I might have "California-scene"ed it a bit, so I might go back and edit that (alongside all the typos I'm only now just noticing...yay :D)  
> (Also the chapter amount is being bumped up - turns out the way I cut up the story is gonna make it longer than I expect)
> 
> As always, thanks for reading, make sure to comment if you have any thoughts or whatever! See you next chapter.


	5. An Inherent Good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning for the following:  
> Sexual Assault (mostly post-event) - If you wish to skip, it starts at "It's not a kind sight" and ends at " “...I’m sorry.” he whispers"  
> , as well as "His last sight is of the knight" and ending on "as they rushed into the dark."  
> Infanticide (I mean, it's baby goblins but I feel some people might not feel comfortable with the idea) starts at "A thin film of light covers the entrance" and ends on "She waits for him to finish"  
> Again, if you feel you can't safely navigate passed those, just click the "end notes" button

_“So...you’re a knight?”_

_The three are standing in the back as the Half-elf mage looks over the map, trying to figure out what direction to go next. The wagon had dropped them off into the region the quest originated from, but since the village was surrounded by such dense forest, the four had to make the rest of the journey on foot. As such, the aforementioned mage had taken charge of assuring they were heading the right direction, leaving the boy and the warrior with the knight to just...well, talk._

_When she shifts her gaze to stare at them, the boy quickly looks away out of instinct while the Warrior shivered. Her gaze reminded him of his master almost – sharp and critical, like it's constantly searching for weak points._

_“Yeh, what of it?”_

_The Warrior scratched the back of his head nervously “Well...” he states hesitantly, threading his hands together “Knights usually were once adventurers, not the other way around, so I was curious-”_

_“Why I’m here with y’all and not at some fancy castle som’where?” she finishes for him, barely holding back a laugh when the older boy becomes flustered, worried he might have offended her. “It’s fine, I don’t mind explainin’”_

_She turns her gaze to the sky “My folks are merchants, so I ended up traveling a lot.” she says, eyeing the clouds coolly with a faraway look “We traded a lot with this one village see, and there weren’t many kids there, so I ended up talking with this one boy a lot, mostly cause I had nothin’ better to do while my folks worked.”_

_The Ranger nods, feeling a twinge of nostalgia pull at his chest (He wonders how the other boy’s doing, now that they're both not there), while the Warrior gained a curious look in his eye_

_“What was he like?”_

_The knight lets out a loud snort “He was a right brat – always yellin’ bout somethin’ or another and goin’ round acting like he was the boss of ev’ryone” she rants, and the brunette boy flinched before she started to smile softly “But I din’t hate him. Sure, he was annoyin’, but he had his cute moments too, being so hard working and all. His folks were gone, so he’d basically got raised by the villagers while he took care of the kin he had left, helpen’ out when he could cause he felt he owed him. Was pretty admirable really.”_

_The Ranger watches as his expression shifts into something unreadable while she turns her gaze back to the earth again and notices some deer grazing nearby, completely unaware of their presence_

_“He told me once that when he got old’r, he’d become a hero and make his village famous by association so they’d get lots of folk to move there and earn some money.” Her already dreamy tone has grown more distant now, and the boy feels near almost like she’s not beside them anymore, fading away into a faraway memory “It was absolute nonsense, but I was real impressed by it - how dedicated he was about it…Made me realize how little I really had value in what I wanted to do with myself.”_

_“You didn’t like your job?”_

_She immediately holds her free hand up in defense as the Ranger eyes her “Hey now, I ain’t meant it like that! I mean, sure, I din’t hate traveling, and I loved my kin a lot, but I never really considered what I could be doing outside of that – I was always just doing what was expect or what I was supposed to do, never thinkin’ ‘bout what it is I wanted if that wasn't an option for me, or if it had to be.”_

_The knight stares at her gloved hands, and sighs “It just made me feel kind've... **empty** when I thought about it, like I was just goin' through the motions of living. Actin' out my role with no thought or feelin'."_

_The boy nods, feeling he had a better grasp of her suddenly. Melancholy over a lack of of a goal wasn't something he was too familiar with, but he could understand that sense of yearning for something to aim for outside yourself, having felt its pull from time to time in his childhood._

_“So you became a knight?” the Warrior asked, and the girl’s nostalgic melancholy vanishes as she perks up and returns to her usual swagger._

_“Yep,” she grins, proudly tapping her chest armor twice “I saved up all I could and went straight to the capital to apply for the knight’s academy! I worked hard, studied, and then a few years later they had me saying my vows earlier than planned – Was probably the only gal there at the ceremony who’s voice hadn’t dropped yet!”_

_But as she says this, the bright smile lighting her face suddenly turned strained “It was all pretty great, getting knighted and being given so many offers to go work under the royal banner, but...”_

_“You still felt empty?” The younger boy finished hesitantly, and she turns somber again, sending a sad smile his way._

_“I was proud of m’self, but I still felt I hadn't done anythin', that I wasn't at a point where I could say to m'self 'This is me, this is how I exist'.” she says, touching her chest lightly while that far-off look returned. “So after getting brought to some lord I din’t know in a place I couldn’t care less about, I asked to come to this here city to apply for the guild – figured some experience with bein' an adventurer would help get me sorted out.”_

_She stares up at the sky, and for a moment, they could not longer see her - it was as though the knight had become transparent in her quiet musings._

_Then she perked up, becoming visible against as she adjusted the hold on her spear "Well, that's enough reminiscin' for now - let's hurry and get to there village! Them goblins ain't gonna slay themselves!"_

_The two boys can only just stare transfixedly at her as she walks off ahead, (one feeling strangely sober from the story he heard while the other felt oddly melancholic over strange emotions from long ago that were resurfacing)._

* * *

As promised, the Priestess takes care of the remaining goblins, striking them down with swift blows from her staff as they reenter the tunnel to main chamber.

“Goblins are fools, but they are not without their own wisdom.” she explains, paying little mind to the tiny body sliding down the wall it was just thrown into “They know how to take advantage of the small spaces and darkness to overwhelm even the most skilled adventures with their numbers and their tricks.”

A goblin leaps from the corner, and the holywoman barely turns her head as she clothesline’s it with her weapon and slams it to the one coming from behind. She barely gives them a chance to recover before bringing the staff down onto both their heads

“However, that also makes them lax, unaware that they can be tricked in turn.”

When the arrive back in the cavern, the space is empty except for the women and the shaman, who is collapsed on the ground by its throne. The Priestess hands him some blankets and instructs him to help her move the girls towards the wall, urging him to be careful. - the woman have been trapped here for days, and likely had no wish to go through any more suffering from either their dead captors or any strangers approaching them.

It’s not a kind sight – Their faces are sunken and their eyes are dark, having been deprived of food, sleep, and sunlight. Their hair has overgrown to the point of matting, and their nails are chipped or have broken off entirely, caked with dirt from from scratching at the ground. Their bodies have become frail and dirty from spending so much time underground, covered in grime, cuts, and... _goblin fluids_. Whatever happened in the chamber, it was painful and agonizing for them. The ones who aren’t near catatonic from their time in captivity refuse to let him touch them without a high amount of soothing, and some require him to call the priestess over because they start clawing at him when he tries getting near.

He’s helping one of the girls up when there’s familiar screeching from where the goblin shaman lays, and the sound frightens her so badly she throws herself at him, grasping at his tunic like a lifeline as her teeth clatter erratically.

“ _Nonononononononononono…_.”

The screeching is cut off with that familiar thwack of the staff, but even then the girl refused to loosen her grip, leaving him helpless to do anything to help when he sees reaching out his hands for comfort just causes her to seize up.

“...I’m sorry.” he whispers, and he can only find it in himself to repeat the words as he waits for her shaking to stop before helping her to her feet.

* * *

_The knight shakes at the sight of the warrior being devoured, eyes tearing up as her gaze falls on the boy she was laughing with and jostling a moment ago._

_Her grip on her weapon grows tight enough to make the wood groan, before she lets out an enraged scream and dives into the crowd, jabbing and swinging at whatever goblins she can reach._

_“C-come back!” The Ranger shouts, reaching out for her arm, only for the goblins to take advantage and refill the gap her and the warrior’s flight had created, forcing him back alongside the Mage, who was still left unbalanced from their teammate's murder and unable to assist him in keeping the monsters from advancing on them._

_On her next swing, the spear is caught, and their hearts turn to ice at the sight of the lumbering giant goblin that stands behind her, staring down dimly at the tiny little intruder and wondering what she was doing._

_“W-what is that?” he breathed as the Mage whimpered, grip on his dagger growing shaky. He never heard of this type of goblin before. There was only supposed to be a handful that had attacked the village in a small group, so why..._

_The knight’s rage does not cease, even in the sight of such an opponent. She tries to pull her weapon back, and when that doesn’t work aims a steel-toed kick to the beast’s belly, only for the attack to bounce off its flesh._

_Her shock is momentary, halted by the monster jerking its arm back, ripping the spear out of her hands and throwing her into the adjacent wall with a loud, sickening **crunch**._

_She coughs harshly as she begins pushing herself back up, arms shaking and eyes still fiery with hate – and is immediately forced back down as the goblins grab her hair and tear apart her armor, ripping with their tiny hands what their small daggers cannot._

_He tries to push through, but, there’s too many goblins now, giggling and scratching as he quickly knocks away a knife aimed at his side..._

* * *

He finds the knight last, laying in a corner – Her eyes have gone dull and she’s breathing weakly, a deep gash in her stomach and scratches on her legs. He can only assume that even after everything, she still fought back and the goblins stabbed her for her defiance.

(It isn’t too deep though, from the looks of it. If they healed her now...)

The Priestess’s steps towards him are slow and deliberate, like she’s trying to approach a startled animal.

“Y-you still have a miracle left, right?” he asks, trying to lift the older girl’s head up as the priestess kneels to examine her. “Can you…?”

The woman doesn’t say anything, just checks the girl’s pulse as she looks over the wound.

When she finishes, both her tone and head are low and solemn “…I cannot help her.” she answers, cutting off his next plea before he can even start “She has been poisoned, and there is no way of healing her or providing an antidote.”

His already pale face drains faster as his blood freezes, “Th-that’s not, it can’t-” he half-cries, chest seizing at the sight of the knight spitting up blood “It’s **poison** , it’s can’t _not_ be cured!”

“Not goblin poison.” she answers lowly with a shake of her head, and his heart sinks with the finality of the tone as she explained “It is a specific type, made of their feces and other toxins. It was likely coated on the weapon they stabbed her with. Even if I could counter it with my miracles, it’s spread too far throughout her body. I’m very sorry, but there’s nothing to be done for her.”

The knight wheezes hard, as though the act of breathing is suffering itself, and he feels himself shake uncontrollably as he watches her eyes tear up (or maybe his own are just making it seem that way). No, there can’t be _nothing_ they could do. They couldn’t just let her, just let her….

(They were going to get her back, he had **promised**...)

She motions him to move back as she takes the older girl’s hand and draws close, whispering something inaudible as the knight writhes on the ground – He only has to strain his hearing enough to make out the words of a **death rite** being passed down onto a soul being prepared to...

Once the prayer is finished, she asks for his knife, and he’s suddenly reminded of his master in the harvest time, crippling a deer with three arrow shots before taking a hunting knife to it’s throat-

( _“Remember little one – If you cannot kill cleanly, then you must do so swiftly._ _”_ )

He wants to shut his eyes, wants to block out what is to come (what has passed, what should never have been) – but he still hands her the blade, staring blankly as the veiled priestess asks the earth goddess to watch over the new soul being brought to her domain before bringing it down towards the girl’s neck...

* * *

_When the finally break through the line of trees, they come upon the bright horizon, sunlight drifting over the small brown huts rising from the ground. The village below was almost bigger than his own homeland, surrounded by a glimmering forest that seemed to stretch out forever and created a sea of gold and green.  
_

_“That’s amazing.” he breaths, and the knight just laughs, smacking him on the back._

_“Be more amazin’ once we take out these here goblins and get at some of the bigger fish out there – See even bigger **and** better places.” she says with a wink as he righted himself, “I saw a request for a temple built under the sea where yah end up facing somethin’ called a kraken! Maybe we can get on that once we finish here?”_

_The young boy absentmindedly nods, still struck by the view before him as the sun made its trip to the peaks._

_The warrior and mage rush ahead to meet the village chief who waits down the road to greet them, while the other two move in slow strides to take in their surrounding._

_“I think your friend would be happy,” the boy says suddenly “That he inspired you to do something so big with your life. He’d probably find you very admirable too.”_

_The knight doesn’t answer, eyes instead suddenly falling onto the warrior, who’s making wild, uncomprehending gestures to the village chief while the mage shakes her head in displeasure._

_“Yeah,” she chuckles, then holds a finger up to her lips playfully as she leans over to him “But don’t go tellin’im all that if y’all happen to end up meeting one day – wouldn’t want him gettin’ a sweller head than he already likely does!”_

* * *

The Priestess knocks down the throne of bones ( _human bones_ apparently – It seemed they were not the first to come after the goblins), uncovering a small slope leading to a hidden wooden door.

“Goblins don’t have females among their kind, so they steal woman from the villages they raid to help reproduce.” she states as they walk down the slope, gripping the edges of the wood “Once their offspring finish growing, they repeat the process and end up with an entire army if left alone. We were lucky to find them before it got to that.”

When its ripped off its hinges, she moves the torch to expose the contents of the room, showing off boxes of items and a few sacks – things from the village he realizes. It was obviously being used as a storage for the goblins misbegotten gains.

But his eyes aren’t looking at all that.

No – instead, they lock onto the baby goblins staring back at them in shock, huddling against each other in fear over these unfamiliar faces. They were obviously hidden here by the shaman, likely to protect them from the intruding adventurers who happened upon their chamber and spare the little ones from the violence.

He’d find it ironic if it wasn’t so despicably laughable – To think that they would have the gall do something so human like.

(And it _i_ _s_ almost laughable, in a terrifying way, that these monsters could be so human enough to want to hide their children, could be so human as to _have_ children – to have _been_ them at some point. That they had in them to look so innocent and small, when they both know what they become in the future)

He hears shuffling and sees the priestess pull out a small, strange looking pouch from her bag, a tiny string keeping it sealed closed.

“Do you have any lamp oil?”

He hands it over and watches he dab a few drops on the bag before lighting the string with the torch and tossing it to the babies feet, causing them to step back.

“ _Oh Earth Mother,_ _abounding in your mercy,_ _grant your shelter to us who are weak_ _–_ _ **Protect**_ _ **ion**_ _!_ ”

A thin film of light covers the entrance, and the bag bursts into flame as the smoke envelopes the tiny creatures within.

It takes a few minutes before one of them starts banging on the light wall, mouth foaming and eyes terrified. The others aren’t as lucky(or unlucky), already on the ground or clawing at their throats.

He worries that something might be wrong, that he even feels anything about this, despite every that happened, despite what the goblins have done to him and the others.

(He wonders if his sister and master would be like this, would have let things gotten to this point.)

“It’s normal.” the Priestess suddenly says, as though reading his thoughts. She hasn't moved. “It’s your first time dealing with them, so those feelings are not strange.”

The goblin’s knocks grow weaker, falling to its knees and begins to inhale harshly.

“Do you always...do it like this?” he asks, watching the smoke grow thick again “Kill the children.”

“If I leave them, they'll simple grow up and seek out the village, repeating what their elders have.” she explains “That, or spread out to a new village - It’s better to simply end them here before that happens.”

He nods grimly at that. That made sense, really - His village did similarly when wolves or the like were found stalking around and an adventurer could not be relied upon; Kill whatever adults they found, then locate and destroy their den and any pups within. It was cruel, but it kept their chickens and cows from being victimized any further or in the future. This was no different.

(Except the pups were simply clubbed and that was that. Their death, while unfortunately, were at least done quickly with little heart. This was not quick or kind, this was-)

One of the goblins starts crying and holds its coughing sibling, and he looks away from it.

He reminds himself of the warrior – torn apart and gored as he died screaming.

He reminds himself the knight – begging for mercy and her father as she was ravaged.

He reminds himself the mage – shivering and frightened as she waits for friends she doesn’t realize aren’t returning.

He reminds himself the receptionist – staring at them sadly as she watch them naively walk off to a death they hadn’t realized they signed up for, just like the others she’s likely waved off before.

He reminds himself of the women behind them – broken and frail, ripped from their families and preyed upon by these monsters

He reminds himself of the goblins – the vile, _evil_ creatures who did all that with smiles on their faces as they bathed in their blood and feasted on their misery

(He remembers it all, and yet his heart still clenches at the sight for some reason.)

“Do you think that there could be good goblins?” she asks suddenly, and it causes him to whirl on her with confusion (and another feeling, foreign but unwelcomed, strangely). It’s a strange question, but also maddening. Could such creatures become good? Did they even know of such of concept, could they understand it? Was it possible for goblins, who only knew how to steal and to eat and to raze and to grow fat through others suffering, to grasp what “good” meant? Other creatures could choose, if they had the intelligence for it, could there be goblins who do the same?

He looks back at the body of the shaman behind them, thinking about how it deliberately stilled its breath and its movement just for the single, small chance of ambushing the ones who laid waste to its horde. It was probably difficult, waiting there on the stone cold floor, listening to them move about its chamber and take back its captives, ignoring every other instinct to focus on that thin tiny opportunity for revenge- all to only end up with it's brains splattered across the ground as its reward.

(If those creatures could find it in themselves be patient and crafty and vengeful - then couldn't they find it in them to have goodness as well? Or did it already exist, but like with other emotions, the simply choose to ignore it for their small, single chances of getting what they wanted.)

“I think-”

He stops as one of the baby goblins slumps against the wall, staring up at him mournfully as its breathing stilled and its eyes shown no more.

She waits for him to finish, and when he doesn’t, she simply places a hand on his shoulder, touch soft and comforting.

(It held no judgement, no disgust, just simple acknowledgment of the answer given by the silence.)

* * *

_After he barely dodges a spear that nearly nicks his face, The Mage grabs his hand and pulls him back, towards the entrance, towards the darkness_

_“We need to run!”_

_“B-but she needs our help!” he cries as he tries to go back, staring helplessly as the other older girl tries to force the monsters off her, getting a rock to the side of her head for her troubles while being deprived of her boots_

_“ **We can’t help her!** ” she screams back, panic taking over what little sanity remained as she tugged him harder, causing him to stumble before forcefully dragging him from the scene._

_His last sight is of the knight, bloody, prone, and naked - having her legs forced open by the goblins as the rest of their ilk chase after them._

_Her horrified screams and the goblins cruel laughter echo around the cave and in the hollow of his heart as they rushed into the dark._

* * *

The last of the goblin children fall, and once the smoke has cleared, she lifts the barrier, and motions him to cover his mouth on the off chance any of what she threw in is still left over. When it’s confirmed there are no more goblins and the ones within have breathed their last, they go back and help the women to their feet, leading them out of the cave

“…I like to think that maybe they could have.” she says quietly, hidden gaze locked straight ahead “That maybe, they could not be what they are. If such a thing could happen, then perhaps...”

* * *

_The half elf stands shakily when the group exits the cave, practically tripping over the stones before her as she rushes to his and the Priestess’s side. She searches the group of hollow-eyed women, and when she doesn’t see who she’s looking for, she look at the Ranger, as if to ask where the missing person is with her gaze alone._

_He doesn’t respond, but the look he gives is enough to cause her to fall to her knees, unable to answer her broken sobs with anything except remorse_

* * *

“ _Then perhaps people like us will stop existing.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, we're almost at the end!
> 
> I ultimately struggled with the idea of whether or not I wanted to kill off the girl knight (mostly because I was wondering if I would make more fics about this verse after this and include a 'where are they now' chapter, and also because I was already making things pretty angsty on their own), but in the end I decided death worked for what I was going for. Chapter was going to be longer, but I ultimately split it in two for the sake of making things less cluttered.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading, and see you at the next (and final) chapter.


	6. Darkness beneath the Light

"You nervous?"

The young boy jolts as the warrior slides up beside him in the cart, the Mage and Knight holing themselves up in the corner to chatter. Their driver announced that they were nearing the boarder to the area the village lay in, and once they've crossed it it was just a straight line to the quest area.

"It's going to be my first time fighting." he admits quietly, hand reaching for his dagger for...comfort he supposes. His sister had given it to him the day before he had left, saying that it was a memento of their late father's that would be helpful to him.

( _“If you ever get lonely, just look at it, and you’ll feel us there...”_ )

"You're a ranger right?" the older boy asked "You must've spent a lot of time hunting down animals."

He nods hesitantly "Yes." and his grip tightens slightly "But I've never had to fight them."

Or rather, the situation never really came up during training – Hunting was about keeping distance between you and your prey, making sure you get the first strike in before they had a chance to actually realize a battle was even happening. He knew how to track animals down, he knew out to set up traps for them, he knew how to defend himself if he came across a wild beast alone or found himself surrounded, how to wait and bide his time so he could make his hit without worrying about getting too close.

But he's never had to _actually_ fight them. Any beast faced in the forests usual went down after a proper cut to the leg or a well-aimed stab to the gut with him only having to get close when it was time to bleed and pelt them. It was difficult to do, but not impossible to handle, for while each and every species was unique in their own ways, they all had patterns - determinable little habits that, with time, you could pick up and use to figure out where they were going, what they were planning, and what you had to do to catch one. No matter how dangerous or evasive it was, no beast was impossible to defeat without fighting.

But they were on their way to face _goblins_ , a creature he's only heard about through adults scolding and his sister's stories. He had no clue what to expect, what to think, what he'd needed to do to ensure he be victorious and hunt down his chosen mark. He was confident in his skills with the blade, but he never actually learned how to use it against someone else in actual combat.

(Would the goblins even be the same as animals were?)

“...Do we really not need a healer?” he asks, looking away when he saw the older boy frown. They all already agreed that searching for a cleric in town was a waste of time and waiting for one to come back from a quest an even greater one, so he probably wasn't appreciative of his bringing the topic back up.

A gloved hand lands on his head, and before he could respond, it begins ruffling his hair boldly

“Geez, relax already,” the warrior sighs, suppressing a snort as the Ranger moved to flatten his hair again “Like I said before, goblins aren’t that bad. They’re usually pretty weak - enough so for even a bunch of newbies like us to handle, so we won’t need to worry about injuries or anything. Besides, it’s likely going to be a small group anyways.”

The young Ranger isn’t fully convinced, but he nods along anyways – the older boy was their leader, technically, and he himself only did just join the guild not an hour ago. If the Warrior insists they were fine (enough to not to need a cleric even), then he’d have to take his word for it.

(They'd be fine. He's sure of it.)

“It’ll be such an easy quest, we probably won’t even have to stay to rest after!” the warrior laughs, leaning against the wall as he looks out into the passing plains “After all – _Who ever heard of getting that badly hurt fighting_ _ **goblins**_ _._ ”

* * *

_He pauses from writing to wipe his eyes, then tosses the tear-stained paper to restart his report again._

* * *

_It’s a very common story, one that happens too often in this world._

_A group of goblins attack a village – stealing their crops and kidnapping their women. The villagers make a request to the adventurers guild to have them killed, which is found by a group of new recruits, eager to wet their blades on an easy quest and get closer to gaining a higher rank. There are many reasons why they think the goblins as easy prey – Perhaps they have faced the creatures before, having helped their village scare off a stray separated from its pack? Maybe they watched a more experienced group take down a nest and think themselves capable of the same, or grew up on stories of brave adventurers defeating hordes of monsters with a single blade stroke?_

_Or maybe, just maybe, they just see them as weak, stupid monsters, being so low on the pecking order of the dark army._

* * *

A young brunette boy is in the middle of studying in his dorm room, surrounded by piles of books and scrolls. There's a test tomorrow that will determine if he'll be allowed access to the more reserved books at the academy, and he plans on doing his absolute best to prove he's worthy of the privilege. He's so focused on the task in hand, he almost misses the sound of a knock on his door.

When he finds a good bookmark and opens the door, he sees a messenger has shown up with a letter, baring a familiar seal.

After receiving it and giving thanks, he excitedly opens it up and takes the moment to read the message, curious as to what it could be about and what amazing news he's about to receive.

He only gets through a few lines before horror takes his features, and it only takes the rest for him to collapse on his knees, clutching the paper tight and sobbing uncontrollably

* * *

_Whatever their reasons, they take on the quest, thinking they’ll simply be cutting off a few goblin heads and rescuing some teary-eyed maidens, coming home heroes as they await the next guild job that comes their way._

_And some do, the event becoming a footnote in their legacies of heroism that they look back on with rosy nostalgia, spoken about fondly in the warmth of companionship alongside the company of food and drink._

_They are the rare ones, the lucky few that escape the unknown tragedy – For the rest, unprepared for the savagery of the goblins or their high numbers, are quickly wiped out._

* * *

The silver-haired half-elf girl makes her way down the guild steps, bags packed and expression weary and somber. It's still early morning, so none of the other adventurers who also rent rooms there have awoken, just as she had planned.

Just as she gets to the door, a noise behind gets her attention, and she nearly drops her bags as she whirls to face it, reaching for a weapon she's not even wearing right now she wouldn't die she wouldn't let them get behind her _not again_ -

It's one of the receptionists, candle in hand and staring in shock as the girl does her best to try and stop her heart palpitations and spirals back and forth between confusion, upset, and panic.

Once she's calmed, the woman smiles sadly at her and gives a bow, silently wishing the girl well on her trip

She stares at the sight for a few minutes before stiffly bowing back, leaving out the door while doing her best to blink away the shameful liquid already falling from her eyes

* * *

_If one manages to survive, it is only by the grace of the gods they are still walking this earth. They end up stopping adventuring all together and rarely end up leaving home, if at all – Knowing that such monsters are out there, and that they had failed against them, is enough to shatter their resolve._

* * *

The sound of broken things has become quite common in the home now

The mother makes her way up the stairs while the rest of the family continues dinner. The father and sister wanted to go up, but she insisted on herself, knowing that as well meaning as they were, the two could not handle what needed to be done.

(Her neighbors tell her she should have done like the farmer and sent her to the temple, but she stubbornly refused - she lost her child once already, not again)

She opens the door as gently as she can. Inside, her daughter sits in the corner next to the broken lamp, raking recently regrown nails across her skin and muttering uncontrollably in rapid breathes, not even realizing someone else is there.

And she still doesn't, even after the mother pulls her into a tearful hug, scratching and tearing at the arms wrapped around her bloody.

* * *

_The girls, if rescued, are never the same - Their time in captivity, being forced to service the goblins, have damaged their souls in ways the comforts of home cannot fix. Some enter the temple, hoping that going into service of the Earth Mother can cleanse them of the pain and silence the screeching laughter. The rest simply shut themselves up in their homes, with their families praying that time and their love can help restore them to their old selves._

_(As we said, its a common story sadly.)_

* * *

A young man travels through the streets, having just exited from the local blacksmith. His porcelain adventure’s tag bounces off his chest as he walks, showing itself off to the world as a whole.

* * *

_It makes you wonder why he’s still here, knowing what he knows now. If he choose to just disappear, vanished off the face of the earth with this tragedy locked in his heart, would anyone be surprised? If those horrifying events like what he experience in the den happen so often, occurred whether he was present or not, then is there truly any point of him carrying on as he is?_

* * *

The door to the guild’s front door opens, and the two women near the front turn to see a familiar face. The receptionist smiles brightly as she beckons him over.

“Welcome back!”

The young Ranger makes his way to the priestess’s side, adjusting the straps on his bag.

“You’ve bought the new chainmail and shield?” the veiled woman asks, and the boy nods, moving his arm to show off the steel plate attached to his arm. The items were a bit pricey, but all together was a good investment considering what he’ll be busy with for the next few days

“Are you hunting goblins again?” he asks, and she shifts to face him, her robs sparkling pristinely, as though they wished to show themselves off before their owner ruined them again.

“Yes” She says, titling her head at him “It’s going to be difficult. Will you lend me your aid?”

( _“_ _Are you sure you wish to follow me?”_ )

* * *

_(Who knows, really._ )

_But he’s an adventurer, through and through, and he will continue being one - at the moment at least._

* * *

He doesn’t even take the moment to consider, eyes flashing in determination as he stands tall before her

“Of course!

The holy woman nods, smiling from under her veil as she leads the boy outside, heading for their next quest.

* * *

**As long as there are goblins, they shall not hide from them.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, looks like the fic's over.
> 
> This story felt like a good challenge to me - helped me get outside my comfort zones in terms of writing. I am kind of sad that there are ideas/parts that I didn't get to cover due to having limited the fic to 5-6 chapters, but that's just how things roll sometimes
> 
> Thanks for sticking around and reading till the end! Let me know what you thought and if you'd like to see me make this into a series or add more oneshots of the verse! Have a good day/night, and happy reading


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